The 4th North Midland Brigade, sometimes known as the 'Derbyshire Howitzers', was a part-time unit of Britain's Royal Field Artillery created in 1908 as part of the Territorial Force. It served on the Western Front in the First World War. Reorganised between the wars, it was later converted to the anti-aircraft (AA) role. During the Second World War, part of the regiment served in the Siege of Malta but the rest was captured at the Fall of Tobruk. The reconstituted regiment served on in Anti-Aircraft Command until 1955 and as a unit of the Royal Engineers until 1967.

Origin When the Territorial Force (TF) was created from the former Volunteer Force by the Haldane Reforms in 1908,Dunlop, Chapter 14.Spiers, Chapter 10. it was organised into regional infantry divisions, each with a full establishment of Royal Field Artillery (RFA) brigades. Where there were no suitable artillery volunteer units in the region, these brigades had to be created from scratch. This was the case for the North Midland Division, for which a new Howitzer brigade was raised in Derbyshire with the following composition:Frederick, p. 680.Becke, Pt 2a, pp. 61–67.Conrad, British Army, 1914.Litchfield, pp. 39–41.MacDonald, p. 17.46th (NM) Division at Long, Long Trail.Monthly Army List.RFA Btys (TF) at Regimental Warpath.Derbyshire Howitzer Btys at Wartime Memories Project.

IV North Midland (Howitzer) Brigade, RFA 1st (Derby and West Hallam) Howitzer Battery 2nd (Derby) Howitzer Battery IV North Midland (Howitzer) Ammunition Column

The new brigade established its headquarters (HQ) at 91 Siddals Road in Derby, which it shared with C and D Squadrons of the Derbyshire Imperial Yeomanry.Derby at Drill Hall Project. The first Commanding Officer (CO), appointed on 1 April was Lieutenant-Colonel Harry Chandos-Pole-Gell of Hopton Hall, previously a Major in the Derbyshire Imperial Yeomanry.London Gazette, 31 July 1908. Most of the other officers were appointed on 6 August: the Officer Commanding (OC) of 1st Derby Bty was Major Lionel Guy Gisborne of Allestree Hall, who had seen service in the Second Boer War as a captain in the Derbyshire Imperial Yeomanry. Among the officers appointed to 1st Derby Bty were three Derbyshire County Cricket Club players: George Walkden, Guy Wilson and Henry FitzHerbert Wright. Wright, who later became an MP, was commissioned as a captain, the other two as 2nd lieutenants. The OC of 2nd Derby Bty was William Drury Drury-Lowe, a former Captain in the Grenadier Guards.London Gazette 11 December 1908.

Lieutenant-Colonel Chandos-Pole-Gell retired in 1913 and was appointed Honorary Colonel of the brigade; Major Gisborne was promoted to succeed him, and was in command on the outbreak of the First World War.

First World War Mobilisation

The order to mobilise was received on 4 August 1914. Shortly afterwards, the men were invited to volunteer for overseas service, and the majority having accepted this liability, the North Midland Division concentrated at Luton. In November, it moved to the area round Bishop's Stortford where it completed its war training. At the time of mobilisation, the two batteries of IV North Midland (H) Bde were each equipped with four BL 5-inch howitzers.Farndale, Western Front, p. 86.

On 15 August 1914, the War Office issued instructions to separate those men who had signed up for Home Service only, and form these into reserve units. On 31 August, the formation of a reserve or 2nd Line unit was authorised for each 1st Line unit where 60 per cent or more of the men had volunteered for Overseas Service. The titles of these 2nd Line units would be the same as the original, but distinguished by a '2/' prefix. In this way, duplicate battalions, brigades and divisions were created, mirroring those TF formations being sent overseas. The floods of recruits coming forward were enrolled in these 2nd Line units.Becke, Pt 2b, p. 6. Lieutenant-Colonel Chandos-Pole-Gell was brought out of retirement to command the 2/1st Staffordshire Infantry Brigade during its first weeks of training.Becke, Pt 2b, pp. 17–23.Bradbridge, pp. 8, 115.

1/IV North Midland Brigade The North Midland Division began embarking for France on 25 February 1915, and by 8 March had completed its concentration at Ploegsteert in Belgium – the first complete TF division to deploy to the Western Front with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). It was numbered the 46th (North Midland) Division shortly afterwards.MacDonald, p. 32.

Hooge Over the following months, the artillery supported the infantry in routine trench warfare in the Ypres Salient. On 19 July, the Royal Engineers exploded a mine under the German positions at Hooge, but the infantry of 3rd Division tasked with seizing the crater had not been given a supporting artillery fireplan. As the infantry were being driven out by German artillery, counter-battery fire from 46th Division's guns and other neighbouring artillery helped to rectify the situation. When the Germans attacked the Hooge crater with flamethrowers on 30 July, 139th (Sherwood Foresters) Brigade of 46th Division was able to stabilise the line with the help of the divisional artillery.Farndale, Western Front, p. 113.MacDonald, pp. 33–35.

Hohenzollern Redoubt 46th Division's first offensive operation was the Battle of the Hohenzollern Redoubt. This was an attempt to restart the failed Battle of Loos, and the division was moved down from Ypres on 1 October for the purpose. The Germans recaptured the Hohenzollern trench system on 3 October, and the new attack was aimed at this point. The artillery bombardment (by the field guns of 46th and 28th Division, backed by heavy batteries) began at 12.00 on 13 October and the infantry went in at 14.00 behind a gas cloud. The attack was a disaster, most of the leading waves being cut down by machine gun and shell fire from German positions that had not been suppressed by the bombardment.Cherry, pp. 269–297.MacDonald, pp. 39–46.Rawson, pp. 120–128.

On 23 December, the 46th (NM) Division was ordered to embark for Egypt. It entrained for Marseille, and some of the infantry had actually reached Egypt before the order was rescinded on 21 January 1916. The artillery returned from Marseille and the whole division reassembled on the Western Front near Amiens by 14 February.

Reorganisation

1/IV (NM) Brigade rearmed with 4.5-inch howitzers on 16 December 1915. A (H) Battery from CLIV (Empire) Howitzer Bde, a Kitchener's Army unit recruited from Croydon, joined the brigade from 36th (Ulster) Division on 28 February 1916, and was designated R (H) Bty on 8 March.Becke, Pt 3b, pp. 61–69. On 1 May, the division was ordered into the line facing Gommecourt in preparation for the forthcoming Somme Offensive. Over the first 10 days of the month, the divisional artillery took over the existing battery positions along this front and began digging additional gun pits, observation posts (OPs) and dugouts to new designs.MacDonald, pp. 69, 80, 86.

While preparing for the offensive, the divisional artillery were subjected to a thorough reorganisation that was affecting all the field artillery in the BEF. First the TF brigades were assigned numbers, 1/IV North Midland becoming CCXXXIII (233), and the 1st and 2nd Derby Howitzer Btys becoming A (H) and B (H) Btys on 13 May. The other three North Midland brigades, now numbered CCXXX, CCXXXI and CCXXXII (230–2), each formed an additional D battery. On 23 May, CCXXXIII (H) Bde transferred A (H), R (H) and B (H) Btys to the other three brigades, and in exchange received each of the other brigades' D Btys equipped with 18-pounder field guns. As a result, CCXXX, CCXXXI, and CCXXXII brigades now had three 18-pounder batteries and one 4.5-inch howitzer battery, but CCXXXIII (despite being the original howitzer brigade) had three newly formed 18-pounder batteries (A from Lincolnshire, B and C from Staffordshire) but no howitzers. In addition, the brigade ammunition columns (BACs) were abolished and merged into 46th Divisional Ammunition Column (DAC).Frederick, p. 692.Farndale, Western Front, p. 130.Farndale, Western Front, Annex D.MacDonald, pp. 86, 108.

In June, Lt-Col Gisborne was awarded a CB and Major (acting Lt-Col) Drury-Lowe, commanding 2nd Derby Bty, received a DSO, but in July Drury-Lowe returned to the Grenadier Guards and reverted to his former rank of captain. He was killed in action in September 1916.Drury-Lowe discussion at Great War Forum.

Gommecourt

Preparations were under way for the 46th and 56th (1st London) Divisions to carry out an Attack on the Gommecourt Salient as a diversion from the main offensive further south. 46th Division would attack from the north west, converging with 56th from the south west.Edmonds, pp. 456–462. On 18 June, 46th Divisional artillery was allocated its tasks for wire-cutting and registration of targets ahead of the attack. It was divided into two groups: CCXXXIII Bde was grouped with CCXXX Bde on the right under the latter's CO, while Lt-Col Gisborne was Right Group's liaison officer at 137th (Staffordshire) Brigade, which was to make the division's right attack towards Gommecourt Wood. Right Group had its batteries dug in west and south west of Gommecourt with a concentration of three batteries around Chateau de la Haye and three others scattered around Sailly-au-Bois and Foncquevillers intermixed with 56th Division's batteries. C/CCXXXIII Battery at the end was lined up with Left Group's guns just west of Foncquevillers. Right Group's responsibility was the German line from the westernmost tip of Gommecourt Park to a point just north of the Gommecourt–Foncquevillers road.MacDonald, pp.165–7.

46th Division used a high proportion of its 18-pounder ammunition to bombard enemy trenches and lines of communication, and a smaller proportion (about 27 per cent) of shrapnel shells to cut German barbed wire. However, on the right of the attack, the ground sloped away from the trajectory of the guns, making it difficult to judge Fuze-settings for wire-cutting. A/CCXXXIII and C/CCXXXIII batteries were assigned to wire-cutting on 137th Bde's front.MacDonald, pp. 208–209, 277.

Apart from the wire-cutting batteries, the divisional artillery was under the direction of VII Corps during the preliminary bombardment, which began on 24 June, but at zero hour it reverted to divisional control. Once the infantry went 'over the top' the field guns were to make a series of short 'lifts', almost amounting to a 'creeping barrage'.Edmonds, pp. 460–461.Farndale, Western Front, p. 147.MacDonald, pp. 296, 302–303.